usnc special section documents/news and... · the articles in this commemorative tribute were...

The articles in this commemorative tribute were commissioned by and

are reprinted with the permission of the International Electrotechnical

Commission (IEC).

03 The World of Electricity: 1820-1904by Mark Frary, with input by Paul Tunbridge

06 The Appointment of a Representative Commissionby Jeanne Erdmann

09 The Founding of the IECby Mark Frary

2 ANSI REPORTER a commemorative tribute

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© 2004 ANSI ReporterAmerican National Standards Institute

I n 1904, leading scientists and pioneering industrialists from around theglobe gathered at the Coliseum Music Hall in St. Louis, Missouri, to discussthe need for cooperation leading to the standardization of electrical appara-

tus and machinery. This pivotal meeting ultimately led to the establishment ofthe International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in 1906. One year later, in1907, U.S. interests rallied to form a National Committee (the U.S. NationalCommittee of the IEC, or “USNC”) to oversee the country’s participation inIEC activities. Today, the IEC promotes international cooperation on all questions of standardization and the verification of conformity to standards inthe fields of electricity, electronics and related technologies.

In recognition of 100 years of global standardization efforts in the electrotech-nical industry, and in remembrance of the historic meeting in St. Louis,Missouri, on September 22, 2004, the American National Standards Instituteand its USNC proudly present this collection of commemorative articles tobegin the IEC 2004 Centenary Celebration.

CONTENTS

On the Cover

Gateway ArchSt. Louis, Missouri, USA

Photo: Stock by Photodisc Green

at www.gettyone.com

a commemorative tribute ANSI REPORTER 3

Following Alessandro Volta’s experiments in1800, which produced electricity by the mutualcontact of discs of silver and zinc moistenedwith water, the study of electric currentchanged the direction of 19th century physics.In their search to find a continuous source ofpower, inventors in various parts of the worlddesigned larger batteries but, as today, weredefeated by the cost question. Mathematiciansand physicists were engaged in a race tounravel the intimate relationship between electricity and magnetism. At the same time,inventors and engineers were trying to outdoeach other with ingenious and ever more efficient devices and systems to produce,measure and harness it.

The “theoreticians”

The theoretical basis for understand-ing electricity began in the 1800s. In 1820 a Danish physicist, H.C.

Oersted, demonstrated that a current passingthrough a wire would deflect a compass needle. This experiment enabled him to discover the magnetic effect of an electric

current. When the demonstration was repeatedby Professor de la Rive at the Académie dessciences in Paris, among those present was thedistinguished mathematician André-MarieAmpère who began a series of researches onthe phenomenon. Meanwhile, Georg SimonOhm, a Bavarian physicist, established in 1827the important relationship that the currentthrough a circuit is proportional to the appliedelectric and magnetic fields and inversely proportional to the resistance.

The English chemist Sir HumphreyDavey, working to improve the safety of miners who relied on candles, had produced in 1802 the first electric arc lamp in whichelectricity was discharged betweentwo pieces of carbon.His laboratory assis-tant was MichaelFaraday, who in1831, while Directorof the Laboratory ofthe Royal Institution,investigated what he

called the “evolution of electricity from mag-netism.” Faraday made minute and accuratemeasurements of electric forces. He also conducted numerous experiments through aprocess of magnetization and demagnetization,for which two separate insulated coils woundround an iron ring enabled him to successfullydemonstrate the complex phenomena of induc-tion. This discovery was later to pave the wayfor the development of electric generators andalternators. Faraday’s experimental disk gener-ator became the first to produce a continuouselectric current.

In a series ofpapers between 1855and 1873, the theoreti-cal physicist JamesClerk Maxwell usedthe mathematics ofincompressible fluidsto express Faraday’slines of force, estab-lishing his famousseries of equations and speculating that elec-tromagnetism bore a remarkable resemblanceto the properties of light. At the time, Maxwellsaid: “We can scarcely avoid the conclusionthat light consists in the transverse undulationsof the same medium which is the cause ofelectric and magnetic phenomena.”

However, Maxwell who died in 1879, did not live to see the experimental proof of his theory. This was left to Heinrich Hertz.Between 1885 and 1889, Hertz was a profes-sor at Karlsrühe Polytechnic in Germany and carried out experiments in which he discharged a condenser across a spark gap,creating radio waves that were then detectedby means of a resonator with a similar gap.This was the first successful transmission andreception of radio waves and Hertz was able to measure their wavelength and frequency. He subsequently showed that radio waveswere reflected and refracted in the same wayas light.

Sir Charles Wheatstone, an Englishphysicist and inventor, was professor of experimental philosophy at King’s CollegeLondon. While in Heidelberg, Germany, studying anatomy, he attended a lecture in1836 during which

For much of the 19th century, the industrial revolution was

in full swing, with electricity being harnessed for commercial

purposes for the first time. This was a period of great

industry and inventiveness. Author Mark Frary, with contributions

provided by Paul Tunbridge, introduces many of the theoreticians and

inventors that laid the foundation for the electrical world that exists today.

1820-1904THE WORLD OF ELECTRICITY

(continued on page 4)

Professor Müncke demonstrated a single-needle telegraph.Impressed, Wheatstone designed the first commercially acceptable installation whichtwo years later went into operation in Englandon the Great Western Railway. He alsodesigned a workable ABC printing telegraph,which eventually failed to find a suitable market. In 1843 Wheatstone experimentedwith underwater telegraphy, but this modellacked the appropriate insulation for the conducting wires. Almost simultaneously, in the United States, Samuel Morse was con-ducting similar experiments and successfullyoperated a public service between Baltimoreand Washington. Wheatstone is also remem-bered for having invented two new devices to measure and regulate electrical resistanceand current: the rheostat and the Wheatstonebridge, which is named after him.

The first international submarine cableservice linking Dover with Calais was laid in 1851 by the British Electric TelegraphCompany. In 1866, a British scientist, LordKelvin — who later became the first presidentof the International ElectrotechnicalCommission — went further and achievedworldwide fame with his Atlantic telegraph.Meanwhile, the mathematician OliverHeaviside, who had worked as a telegraphoperator, showed how Maxwell’s equationscould be reduced to more readily usable differential equations.

As public power generation became a practical reality, scientists turned their attention to the problems of dealing mathemat-ically with electrical engineering. One of thekey figures was Germany’s Charles Steinmetz,who within three years of his arrival in theUnited States in 1889, had formulated the lawof hysteresis, allowing electrical engineers to

calculate and reduce power losses in motors,generators and transformers. Steinmetz wenton to show how complex number theory couldbe used as an elegant means of predicting thebehavior of alternating currents in circuits.

The inventors

While the first half of the centurybelonged to the “theoreticians,”the second half was a period of

creativity in science and engineering. Importantinventors from this era included ThomasEdison, Nikola Tesla, Guglielmo Marconi and Colonel R. E. B. Crompton.

In the United States, Thomas Edison, aformer newsboy, started in business makingtelegraph instruments. Transmitting a singlesignal along a telegraph cable was time-consuming and costly. Edison’s multiplex telegraph enabled more than one signal on a

single cable. In 1877, Edison expanded hisfactory to manufacture complete generatorsand lighting systems including his own designof filament lamp. After commercial successwith his invention of the phonograph, he went on to develop the first commercially successful incandescent light bulb.

Nikola Tesla was born in 1856 in Smiljanin Croatia (then part of the Austro-HungarianEmpire) to Serbian parents and emigrated toAmerica in 1884. He held 112 patents in theU.S. alone, including Patent 382,280 on theelectrical transmission of power, for which heis best remembered.

In this patent, Tesla wrote: “By producingan alternating current, each impulse of whichinvolves a rise and fall of potential I reproducein the motor the exact conditions of the gener-ator, and by such currents and the consequentproduction of poles the progression of thepoles will be continuous and not intermittent.”

GuglielmoMarconi was born in Bologna, Italy, in1874. By 1896, he had come to Englandand was helped in his experiments inwireless telegraphy by William Preece, the engineer-in-chiefof the Post Office. In a letter to Preece inNovember of that year Marconi remarked that“this very rapid charging and discharging ofthe capacity throws the ether all around intovibrations which affect the conductor at thereceiver.” In April 1897, he admitted to Preecethat “I have not yet been able to find a satis-factory explanation as to how the signals get tothe other side of the hills.”

The interests of Colonel Cromptonranged from auto-mobiles, bicycles, military tanks androad engineering to electric lighting,power generation and electrical equipment. TheEnglish engineerwent on to form oneof the most success-ful engineering firms of the century, Cromptonand Co. By the end of the century, despite mil-itary service in the Boer War, the proliferationof electricity and electrical devices broughthim to appreciate the need for standardizationat both the national and international level.

The “power” generation

The first practical dynamo-electricmachine to appear on the market was invented by Zénobe Gramme,

a Belgian carpenter turned industrial


(continued from page 3)

Thomas Edison was America's

most prolific inventor with 1,093

patents to his credit.

The World of Electricity: 1820-1904


model-maker, who in about 1870, improvingupon existing machines, produced his owndesign. Other makers followed Gramme’s ini-tiative including Siemens in Germany andtheir offshoot in Britain, as well as EmilBürgin in Switzerland. In the United States,electric power came to the masses in autumn1882 with the opening of Edison’s Pearl Street generating station in lower Manhattan.

Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti was born inLiverpool, England, in 1864. His precociousinterest in electricity led him to design lightingfor his father’s photographic studio at the ageof 13. At 16, he patented a dynamo and at 21was made chief engineer of the LondonElectric Supply Corporation. It was in this rolethat he was instrumental in the design and con-struction of the world’s first high voltage ACpower station at Deptford in London. On itsopening, the station generated power at 10,000volts and supplied electricity to most of centralLondon.

In the United States, the inventor GeorgeWestinghouse was particularly interested in thearea of safety. He devised the world’s first airbrakes, automatic signals for railways and asystem for transporting natural gas safely, butin 1884 he turned his attention to electricalpower generation.

Westinghousehad followed developments in AC power generationin Europe with inter-est. Employing thenewly arrived NikolaTesla to develop ACgenerators andmotors, Westing-house opened a hydroelectric power station atNiagara Falls in 1895, starting the trend forsiting generating capacity at a distance fromconsumption — something for which AC wasbetter suited.

Emergence of regional electrotechnical societies

The rapid pace of change at that periodis particularly reflected in the growthof the learned societies between 1870

and 1890. Countries in various parts of the

world started forming their own electrotechni-cal societies. In 1871, the Society of TelegraphEngineers was founded in London. The over-lap between telegraphy and electrical engineer-ing then led to the society broadening its namenine years later to become the Society ofTelegraph Engineers and Electricians. Thatname lasted even less time and in 1888 itbecame the Institution of Electrical Engineers(IEE), the name it retains today.

In 1883, the Société Internationale desElectriciens was formed in France and theElektrotechnischer Verein in Vienna, Austro-Hungary. The following year saw the estab-lishment of the American Institute of ElectricalEngineers. The Canadian ElectricalAssociation appeared in 1891, followed twoyears later by Germany’s Verband DeutscherElektrotechniker and in 1897 by Italy’sAssociazione Elettrotecnica Italiana.

The British Association for the Advancement of Science appointed in 1861 a specialized committee under LordKelvin (then William Thomson) to study thequestion of electrical units. Foremost to recognize their importance, Kelvin insistedthat ‘when you can measure what you arespeaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it.’ The followingyear, as well as recommending the use of themetric system, he emphasized the need for acoherent set of electrical units.

At the 1881 Paris Congress, althoughlacking precise definitions, the ampere, volt,and ohm were recommended as practical units.Kelvin’s pioneer work in the BritishAssociation and at the series of InternationalCongresses contributed to the establishment ofa solid foundation of electrical units and stan-dards, and up to his death he more than anyother, paved the way for their internationaladoption. In 1967 the unit ‘kelvin’ (symbol K)was assigned to the unit of thermodynamictemperature as one of the base units of theInternational System of Units.

International standardization

Although the importance of electricalmeasuring units had been universal-ly recognized, by the end of the

19th century the lack of standardization of

electrical equipment had become a worldwideproblem. With the development of economicgenerators, filament lamps, fittings and reliablecables, local authorities and distributors for thefirst time could choose between the merits ofdifferent designs. But in the absence of agreedratings and recognized performance criteriathey were often obliged to follow the advice ofexperienced consultants. Manufacturers, on theother hand, began to appreciate that to facili-tate repetitive production, simplification ofdesigns was essential especially in reducingcost for the consumer, meeting competitionfrom foreign producers, and providing recog-nized guarantees.

In Britain a committee set up under theauspices of the Institution of Civil Engineersin 1901 considered the advisability of stan-dardizing iron and steel sections. One yearlater the committee was enlarged to includeelectrical plant. It was this committee underSir John Wolfe Barry that finally emerged asthe British Standards Institution.

The American Institute of ElectricalEngineers (IEEE) had already set up a com-mittee in 1897 to deal with electrical standard-ization but it was not until 1918 that theAmerican Standards Engineering Institute(later ANSI) came into existence.

Electrical engineers in the early 20th cen-tury began to see the need for closer collabora-tion embracing terminology, testing, safety andinternationally agreed specifications. While the19th century had been the era of electrotechni-cal innovation, the emphasis was now on con-solidation and standardization. While theseries of International Electrical Congresses,particularly those between 1881 and 1900, hadbeen solely concerned with electric units andstandards, it was at the St. Louis, USA, congress, held in 1904 that, in the interests ofcommercial transactions and trade, the propos-al was made for the setting up of a permanentinternational commission to study the unifica-tion of electrical machines and apparatus.

When you can measure what you

are speaking about, and express it

in numbers, you know something

about it.— Lord Kelvin

The World of Electricity: 1820-1904


In 1903, the city of Niagara Falls bustled atthe center of the North American electricalindustry. By then, the power of rushing water

had been channeled into electricity. GeorgeWestinghouse had built a power station thereusing two-phase alternating current generatorspatented by Nikola Tesla. Factories moved to thearea because no comparable abundant power wasavailable.

Beginning in July of that year, perhaps unnoticed by those outside the sphere of amperesand volts, Niagara Falls, USA, hosted the planningcommittee for a week-long International ElectricalCongress in 1904. Four similar congresses, heldduring the preceding 23 years in different parts of the world, had all pointed towards this finalone. It was to be a special part of the LouisianaPurchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri, which took place from May to December of thatyear. This congress would set the stage for a per-manent International Commission on electricity.

Niagara FallsThere was a lot at stake for the Niagara commit-tee, which was organizing the scientific sessionsof the Electrical Congress. Although electricitywas still in its infancy, the commercialization ofelectrotechnology was well underway. Incandes-cent lamps were beginning to illuminate streetsand homes, offices and laboratories. Telephonesconnected households, telegraphs connected cities,and transoceanic cables connected continents.Now, international standardization was needed for electrical science so that scientists in everycountry could use the same words for this emerging technology.

The Niagara planning committee decided thatwhen the International Congress met in St. Louisin 1904, a special group of government appointeddelegates would address international electromag-netic units and international standardization. Suchstandardization was necessary to promote commu-nication among scientists, to support safety, func-tion, and performance of all things electrical, andto spur international commerce. Earlier congresses

had adopted terminology, such as Gauss andMaxwell for units of magnetic field and magneticflux, but not all scientists used that terminology.And the electrical world was divided about theneed to name every unit.

These issues were in the forefront on July 1,1903, when the Niagara organizing committeeheld its first meeting. On that day, the memberselected Elihu Thomson,inventor and founder of the General ElectricCorporation, as presidentof the 1904 congress. The committee also elected other officers andappointed a 25-member advisory board. In addi-tion, the Niagara commit-tee divided the work of the congress into two sections: general theory andapplications.

During the second meeting, held again inNiagara Falls two months later, the committeeasked the secretary, Arthur Kennelly, to issue invitations “among all interested in electricity orits applications” to join the congress. In the letter,Kennelly outlined plans for the congress anddescribed a strategy by which the St. Louis congress would host a Chamber of Delegates,appointed by respective governments. The dele-gates would serve as the official representatives to the St. Louis congress and would address standardization issues such as nomenclature.

representative commission

Why did St. Louis host a

world’s fair in 1904?

Why was electricity

such an important topic

that people came from

all over the globe

to propose an

international commission?

What were the steps

the organizers took to

convene such an august

group?

What were the outcomes

of these efforts?

Author Jeanne Erdmann

answers all these

questions . . . and more.

aathe appointment of


By October, the Niagara committee hadmailed 14,900 typed and signed invitations to join the congress. Letters to potential foreign participants were sent in English, French, and German. The USD 5.00 membership feeincluded admission to scientific meetings, acopy of the transactions, and, for the foreigndelegates, an invitation to a circular tour thatwould precede the Exposition. The Niagaracommittee’s efforts found success. By the time the Fifth International Electrical Congressopened in St. Louis on September 12, 1904, as many as 16 technical societies in the U.S.and abroad had accepted the invitation, 719electrical scientists had registered, and 15 governments had appointed a total of 29 delegates [see inset photo at right].

The Palace of ElectricityOpening ceremonies for the LouisianaPurchase Exposition were held on April 30,1904. The exposition celebrated the purchaseof the Louisiana Territories from France forUSD 15 million in 1803 (the centennial cele-bration came one year late as the Expositionplanning committee needed additional time).While New Orleans had been discussed as apossible site for the celebration, St. Louis waschosen for its central location and because itwas the largest city in states that had emergedfrom the Purchase.

Although the International ElectricalCongress would not begin until September,electricity took front and center at the Fair. On April 30 during the formal opening,President Theodore Roosevelt sat in the eastroom of the White House in Washington D.C.and pushed a telegraph button sending themessage that signaled the official opening.Flags unfurled and fountains gushed to life.On the south side of the Palace of Electricity,three motor-driven pumps sent nearly 100,000

gallons of waterstreaming down the Cascades. Atransformer roomunder the Cascades supplied power toilluminate the rush-ing water with alter-nating lights of red,green, and opal,each color controlledby a triple-throwswitch on a separatewiring system.

The Palace ofElectricity served asa centerpiece for theExposition. Despitethe high tariff imposed by the United States on products of foreign factories, nearly half of the 109,973 square feet (10,216 squaremeters) exhibit area in the Palace held international electrical exhibits. Visitorswatched electricity at work. There were running demonstrations of alternating and direct current. Fair goers positioned at telephone stations on either side of the Palace could speak to each other on tele-phones, “without any metallic connectionbetween the two.” Visitors saw workingdemonstration of dynamo, a model of a monorail train from Great Britain, and a wireless telegraph, which was used by thepress during the Exposition to file stories.

On September 12, the Electrical Congressopened at the Exposition. During that week, on September 14, Electricity Day was cele-brated with parades and demonstrations. At thePalace on that day, visitors watched demon-strations of the mega-volt transformer. Theoutput of 1,000,000 volts shot a “flaming arc”into the sky as loud cracks of sound rippledacross the fairgrounds.

The Palace of Electricity needed a “large amount of power” for the USD 4 million worth of exhibits. The lack of stan-dardization was reflected in the many types of power that needed to be supplied toexhibitors. Little power was available for purchase at the time, although some was purchased at a cost of USD 3.04 per rated

kilowatt, to help power the intramural railwayplant. But each country brought exhibitsrequiring different power: direct current andalternating current; 25- and 60-cycle alternat-ing current; 1-, 2-, and 3-phase alternating current, and numerous direct current voltages.

The 1904 Electrical CongressMembers of the Chamber of Delegates addres-sed this lack of consistency when the congressassembled from September 12 to 17. When theGeneral Congress opened in the ColiseumMusic Hall on the morning of September 12,Professor William Goldsborough, chief of thedepartment of electricity, spoke to more than1,000 people. He told participants that the“cooperative spirit that animates electricalworkers” had already produced better nomen-clature, uniform standards and a system forproducing accurate records among internation-al scientists.

That work was far from over. Four previous international electrical congresses hadalready started the dialogue on nomenclatureand standardization that began with the firstcongress, which met in Paris in 1881, where the centimeter-gramme-second (c.g.s.) systemwas adopted. By the time the fifth congressconvened in St. Louis, the terminology of kilowatt had replaced horsepower, but no twocountries had yet defined units in the same way.

At the General meeting of the congress,several of the (continued on page 8)

A Representative Commission


158 research papersthat were read dealt with standardization ofunits. Professor Moise Ascoli head of the dele-gation from Italy, Associazone ElettrotechnicaItaliana, read a paper that discussed the meritsof the Giorgi versus Heaviside systems. The previous day, Arthur E. Kennelly, then a professor of engineering at Harvard,addressed the importance of nomenclaturewhen his paper on alternating current theoryon transmission speed over submarine cableswas read. Frank A. Wolff, of the NationalBureau of Standards [Editor’s Note: The NBS later became the National Institute ofStandards and Technology], read a paper thatdetailed efforts for standardization during the four previous international congresses.Following Wolff’s paper, a long debate began, which covered: accurate measurementof units, nomenclature, and the differences inlaws regarding electricity among countries.Dr. Kennelly was a long-time supporter ofnaming all of the absolute units, as he mentioned the previous day, when his paperwas read, because “all germs and even weeds have names.”

“A noxious germ is not used because it is named,” remarked Mr. H.E. Harrison in the discussion following Wolff’s paper.Harrison continued by saying that naming thetwo absolute systems would bring confusion to people reading research papers. At the 1900 Paris congress, continued Harrison, the names Gauss and Maxwell were adoptedbut in England “only one in 100 engineers”would know what these terms mean.

After a long discussion on the volt standard, Kennelly said: “It seems onlyreasonable that fundamental units which

have to be used, at least in theoretical investi-gations, should receive names, and perhaps the simplest method of naming these units is to employ prefixes in connection with thepractical units.” Others, such as John Perry and Doctor R.T. Glazebrook, both of GreatBritain, thought Kennelly was insisting on “far too many names” because the c.g.s. system is self-evident.

The debate lasted long after the sessionadjourned. When the discussion led to a comparison of laws, participants noted the

vast inconsistencies in how units were defined.Those differences could be costly, Kennellynoted, because a “question of one-tenth of avolt in one hundred and ten”, could involve“large sums of money in regard to a contractfor incandescent lamps.”

A permanent organizationFor the Chamber of Delegates, these issueswere not theoretical or academic. The 29 dele-gates hailed from 15 countries including theUSA, France, Great Britain, Mexico and India.Their meetings were held separately from thescientific sessions of the congress so the dele-gates could formally address issues regardinginternational standardization.

At 3:15 p.m. on September 12, 1904, delegates held their first meeting at the HotelJefferson (shown above) in St. Louis. Theyadjourned fifteen minutes later after havingnominated Elihu Thomson as president of theChamber. Delegates also appointed a commit-tee to consider officers for a permanentInternational Commission. On Tuesday,September 13, delegates met at the HotelJefferson for a second time. They appointed a committee to investigate international standardization of electrical science.

On September 15, delegates awoke to sunshine and a cool day. That afternoon, they met for the third time. During the meet-ing, Thomson and his colleagues unanimouslyadopted many resolutions addressing the lackof uniformity regarding “laws relating to electrical units.” One resolution took the firstofficial action toward a permanent internation-al congress: “That steps should be taken tosecure the cooperation of the technical

societies of the world, by the appointment ofa representative commission to consider the

question of the standardization of the nomenclature and ratings of electrical appara-tus and machinery.” The Chamber adjournedwhen all resolutions were adopted.

On Friday, the delegates met for the finaltime. They agreed to report back to theirrespective governments and technical societiesregarding actions taken in St. Louis. Theythanked Thomson and other officers for theirservice.

The congress officially came to a closeduring a General Meeting on Saturday, September 17. Many speeches were given in regard to the potential of international standardization. Professor Webster, of ClarkUniversity, president of the American PhysicalSociety said: “We feel that the work accom-plished at this congress will render it a memo-rable one not only on account of the subjectsunder discussion but also for the move that hasbeen taken in regard to the InternationalCommission.”

Elihu Thomson, who played an integralrole beginning with the Niagara planning committee, expressed confidence that effortstowards standardization of nomenclature and units would be handled by an appropriatedeliberating body. “I have no doubt that thisCommission will soon be a fact, and will thenbe able to take up questions which are not, orfor which many of us thought are not, properto be discussed during an exposition,” saidThomson.

When addressing specifically the foreigndelegates, Thomson said, “I have found thatthe unanimity of action, the absence of anydisagreement whatsoever has been remarkable.As soon as a measure was known to be a proper thing, all votes were unanimous andthis bodes well for future work of theInternational Commission.”

Thomson went on to note the “boundless”future of electrical science and closed hisremarks with: “prepare then to accept an electrical universe.”

In 1908, Thomson would become the IEC’s second president, following the deathof Lord Kelvin.


A Representative Commission


Much was going on in the world during theperiod from 1904 to 1906. Einstein publishedhis paper on the Special Theory of Relativity;U.S. engineers had just begun work on thePanama Canal; and the picture postcard, theice cream cone and the jukebox were invented.

On both sides of the Atlantic, factoriesand townships were clamoring for moreelectricity to replace outmoded gas and oillighting systems. H.G. Wells, in the NorthAmerican Review (1901), predicted the electrical century ahead when houses and factories would be heated, ventilated and operated by electricity.

In the world of electrical engineeringmuch was happening, too. John AmbroseFleming, Britain’s first ever professor of electrical engineering, invented the thermionicvalve while in the U.S., Lee De Forest invent-ed the triode. This was the period that saw thebeginnings of the International Electrotechni-cal Commission (IEC).

The road to the organization’s existencereally began in St. Louis. The Missouri citywas a busy place in 1904. Not only was it host

to the Olympics and the Universal Expositionheld to celebrate the centenary of theLouisiana Purchase, electrical engineers fromaround the world came to the city for theInternational Electrical Congress, the fifth inthe international series.

At the congress, a Chamber of Delegates,made up of engineers from 15 countries,including the Argentine Republic, France,Germany, Great Britain, Switzerland and theUnited States, carried a resolution to the effectthat:

Steps should be taken to secure the co-operation of the technical societiesof the world by the appointment of a representative commission to considerthe question of the standardization ofthe Nomenclature and Ratings ofElectrical Apparatus and Machinery.

The delegates were then charged to returnto their respective technical societies to takeaction on this resolution and “communicate theresults of such action to Colonel R. E. B.

Crompton, Chelmsford, England and to thePresident of the American Institute ofElectrical Engineers, New York City.”

Colonel Rookes Evelyn Bell Crompton,who had been asked by Britain’s Institution ofElectrical Engineers (IEE) to accompany theIEE president, J. K. Gray, to America to repre-sent British electrical engineering, was a keyfigure in the industry.

The inimitable Colonel Crompton

ColonelCromptonwas born

in Yorkshire,England in 1845 and like manyVictorian era engineers had apanoply of interests.His KensingtonCourt power stationin London was one of the first in the city andhe was involved in many of Britain’s earlypublic lighting and electricity supply schemes.Crompton was also fondly keen of all forms ofvehicular transport, particularly bicycles, andwas also a founder of the Royal AutomobileClub as well as being involved in the inventionof the military tank.

Crompton had been singled out by theChamber of Delegates because of a paper hegave at the congress on the subject of stan-dardization in electrical engineering. In hisautobiography, Reminiscences, Cromptonremembers: “My paper had this effect, that atthe end of the session I was officially request-ed to do my best

FOUNDINGIEC

THE FOUNDING OF THE INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION

What took place between September 1904 in

St. Louis and June 1906 in London when the IEC

officially came into being? Who spoke to whom,

who decided what, who had the lead and what kinds of personalities did

they have? Ultimately, how did it all come together for the founding meet-

ing in London? Mark Frary provides insight into the two years leading

up to the founding of the International Electrotechnical Commission.

(continued on page 10)


to form a permanentInternational Electrotechnical Commission,which should deal with electrical standardiza-tion from an international standpoint. I fore-saw great difficulties, but these difficultieswere eventually overcome.”

On his return, Crompton communicatedthe desire of the congress to the BritishEngineering Standards Committee, whichbrought together engineers from all disci-plines, including the Institution of MechanicalEngineers, the IEE and the Institution of CivilEngineers (ICE) to discuss matters regardingstandardization. This committee held its sittings under the direction of ICE and so itwas this organization that Crompton firstapproached.

Initially, the ICE Council were positiveabout the international proposal but felt it too early. The council commented at the time:“The appointment of such a Commissionthough in every way desirable, would at present be premature; but we believe that preliminary action may, with advantage betaken with the aim of paving the way to theultimate formation of such a Commission, if the Council approves the general object.”

In February 1905, ICE President Sir JohnWolfe-Barry, the engineer who had designedLondon’s Tower Bridge, conferred with thethen IEE president Alexander Siemens regard-ing Crompton’s proposal and suggested thatthe IEE should take the lead in the matter byappointing an Executive Committee.

For the two presidents, conferring was a relatively easy task as the two institutionsshared premises at One Great George Street in London’s West End. The rapidly expandingElectrical Engineers did not move to theirSavoy Place home — where the IEC eventually held its first plenary meeting —until 1907.

Oui, Si, Yes, Ja and Hai

At the end of 1905, ColonelCrompton announced to the IEE Council that he had sent

out preliminary enquiries regarding theCommission and had received favorableresponses from the electrical societies of nine countries. These were the American

Institute of Electrical Engineers, France’sSociété Internationale des Electriciens, Italy’s Associazione Elettrotecnica Italiana, the Canadian Electrical Association,Germany’s Verband DeutscherElektrotechniker and Austro-Hungary’sElektrotechnischer Verein. The electrical societies of Denmark, Sweden, Norway alsoexpressed their interest in the proposals.

Six months later, the IEE Councilannounced it had appointed an ExecutiveCommittee to “consider and report upon ascheme for the constitution of such anInternational Commission.” The membersincluded among others the new IEE presidentJohn Gavey, the immediate past presidentAlexander Siemens, Post Office chief engineerSir William Preece, Lord Kelvin and ColonelCrompton.

June 1906 looked to be an ideal time forthe Commission to come together. The IEECouncil had already extended invitations toseveral of the world’s electrotechnical societiesto come to London “in some measure to returnthe courtesies received in former years fromthe electrical institutions in Europe andAmerica.”

Thus meetings were set up for June 26-27, 1906, under the chairmanship of Alexander Siemens, president of the Executive Committee. As with many interna-tional get-togethers, social events were alsoarranged including a post-meeting ten-day tour of England and Scotland by speciallychartered train in which the visiting engineerswould visit various electrical companies andlocal branches of the Institution of ElectricalEngineers around the country as well as thesights of the Lake District and Shakespeare’sStratford-upon-Avon.

In the event, three of the nine countries

who had accepted Crompton’s invitation —Denmark, Sweden and Norway — had notbeen able to appoint delegates to attend by the time of the London meetings. However,representatives from Belgium, Holland, Japan,Switzerland and Spain had added to the original list of countries.

As for a venue to hold this prestigiousmeeting, there was only really one choice.

Europe’s largest hotel

London’s premier hotel in the early1900s was the Hotel Cecil, with anentrance on the Strand and overlook-

ing the River Thames. At the time, it was thelargest hotel in Europe and had more than 800luxuriously decorated rooms. The Cecil wasat the height of its popularity, and was a regu-lar haunt of visiting Americans. The IEE heldits annual dinner there each year.

Opening the first meeting on MondayJune 26, Siemens explained that “the firstbusiness of the meeting was to constitute thecommission by adopting a set of rules. A draftwhich had been provisionally prepared and circulated previously to the delegates was then

The Founding of the IEC



referred to a subcommittee for detailed consid-eration.” The subcommittee adjourned untilthe following day.

That evening, the IEE threw a banquet at the Cecil for 450 guests and delegates inhonor of the foreign visitors. According to a report of the event in the Times later thatweek, IEE president John Gavey proposed atoast. Speaking in French, he said it gave him“the greatest happiness to see the soliditywhich existed between the great professions,whether political, religious or national. Hethought that this solidarity was the most pronounced among engineers.”

The following day saw more meetings,including the adjourned meeting of the sub-committee that was examining the rules for the operation of the proposed Commission.The principal rules agreed at that meeting were as follows:

the Commission is to be known as theInternational Electrotechnical Commis-sion (IEC) for the standardization ofnomenclature and ratings of electricalapparatus and machinery…;any self-governing country desiring tojoin the IEC may form a local committee.These committees are to be formed onefor each country, by the technical soci-eties of each country. In a country havingno such technical societies, the govern-ment may appoint a committee;each committee is to send delegates tothe Commission. Each country is entitledto one vote only, whatever the number ofdelegates…Only such decisions may bepublished as those of the IEC which havebeen passed unanimously by the Com-mission. All decisions passed by a divid-ed vote may be published only when thenames of the countries voting for andagainst are given;the central offices of the IEC are for thepresent in London, at the office of theInstitution of Electrical Engineers. Themethods of carrying out the objects of theCommission are in the hands of aCouncil consisting of a) the President ofthe Commission b) the Presidents of thelocal committees c) one delegate from

each local committee d) the HonorarySecretary;in general, the business of the IEC willbe conducted by correspondence, but thePresident may summon a meeting of theCouncil or of the Commission when hesees fit…. These meetings are to takeplace in London, or in such other placesas the majority of the Commission deter-mine. Each local committee is to findfunds for its own expenses, and to con-tribute an equal share to the expenses ofthe Central Office.

With the modus operandi for the IEC nowworked out, all that remained was to appointthe first incumbents of the two unfilled posi-tions on the fledgling IEC Council.

Kelvin for president

Becauseof hismajor

role in bringing the Commission to fruition, Col-onel Cromptonwas an obviouschoice for one ofthe roles and hewas duly appointedas the IEC’s first Honorary Secretary.

The role of first IEC President wasbestowed upon Lord Kelvin. Best rememberedfor his work on thermodynamics and in partic-ular for the concept of absolute zero, the tem-perature at which all molecular motion ceases,Kelvin had a prodigious output as a scientistand electrical engineer.

His 1856 paper, “Dynamical illustrationsof the magnetic and helicoidal rotary effects oftransparent bodies on polarized light,” laid thegroundwork for James Clerk Maxwell’s subse-quent theories on electromagnetism while themirror galvanometer that he designed was crucial in the successful laying of the firsttransatlantic submarine cable in 1865. It wasfor this latter work that he was named toBritain’s House of Lords.

To celebrate this highly satisfactory out-come, Lord Kelvin and Colonel Crompton

were among 1,700 guests who went thatevening to the Natural History Museum for an‘a conversazione’ evening, entertained by thestring band of the Royal Engineers. The nextday the visiting engineers departed on theirtour of country, happy in the knowledge thatthey had embarked upon a new journey ofinternational co-operation.

Although Kelvin and Crompton were thefirst public faces of the IEC, the contributionof a third person should not be forgotten.

The American influence

In his autobiography Reminiscences,Crompton claimed that Professor ElihuThomson (see photo on page 6) had been

the “real originator of the International schemeat the St. Louis Conference.”

Professor Thomson was born in 1853 inManchester, England, but his family moved toPhiladelphia when he was five. Initially hisinterests were in the field of chemistry andindeed his professorship was in this area. Butby 1880, Thomson had become totallyabsorbed into the rapidly developing field ofelectrical engineering. He was granted a multi-tude of patents, including the electric weldingmachine, and the firm he founded with E. J.Houston merged later with Edison’s firm tocreate the General Electric Company.

Professor Thomson was therefore a natu-ral choice for the role of president of the 1904St. Louis congress. Speaking about those earlyyears of international co-operation to ColonelCrompton a few years after the IEC’s inaugu-ration, Professor Thomson said:

“No work of such huge importance to theelectrical industry has exceeded that of thework commenced during the last fewyears in the international exchange ofelectrical ideas. It is a very difficult thingto carry on these matters internationally;there are many jealousies to be overcome,many susceptibilities to be met; and it issomething to be proud of that no quarrelsand no troubles have yet arisen.”

That same spirit of co-operation persiststoday as the IEC celebrates its hundred yearsof existence.

The Founding of the IEC

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U.S. NATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE IEC

T oday’s ideal standards scenario centers on the develop-ment of a single, internationally recognized, technically

valid document. International standards make it clear how toimprove the safety of products for the protection of con-sumers. They support the worldwide sale of products andprevent regions from using local standards to favor localindustries.

U.S. experts have worked extensively with both national andinternational standards bodies to ensure American interestsare well represented in the development of internationalstandards.

Within the electrotechnical community, the USNC serves asthe U.S. link to the International Electrotechnical Commissionand as the primary U.S. electrotechnical industry interfacewith regional standards bodies such as the CENELEC,Pacific Area Standards Congress (PASC), the Pan AmericanStandards Commission (COPANT), and the Council forHarmonization of Electrotechnical Standards of the Nationsof the Americas (CANENA).

The USNC advocates on behalf of U.S. interests that inter-national standards must be based on the principles of theWorld Trade Organization Technical Barriers to Trade(WTO/TBT) Agreement and adopt the concepts of valid jus-tification, global relevance, consensus, openness, balance,impartiality, transparency, due process (including promptappeal), flexibility, coherence and timeliness. The USNCalso promotes the concept of “one test and one certification”based on the marketplace demand.

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